Sunday You Learn How to Box by Bil Wright

Author:Bil Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

16

The day I came home from Burgess and saw Ray Anthony in the parking lot, I grabbed my chance to talk to him, really talk to him for as long as he’d let me.

“Ray Anthony!” I yelled, running to him. “You working this summer? I haven’t seen you.”

“Yeah,” he answered, as though he was used to us having conversations, as though he wasn’t at all surprised I was asking. “I got me my same job I always had.”

“What’s that?” I tried to sound casual like maybe he’d told me a long time ago, but I’d forgotten.

“At the Sunoco station. End of Blackburn Avenue.”

“Oh, right,” I said. “What do you do?” That was real stupid, I thought. What does anybody do who works at a gas station?

“Mostly, fix engines. Sometime I gotta pump some gas. But what he hired me for is that I can fix any kinda engine. Any kind.”

His confidence made me feel proud.

“Where you comin’ from?” I could hardly believe he was asking. I panicked, not wanting to lie to him.

“This place,” I started. “It’s called Burgess. I go every day.” Then it began to pour out of me like I’d been waiting for weeks to tell him. I didn’t think about being ashamed or that he’d laugh or tell anyone else. It seemed right that he should know. In my mind, Ray Anthony should know anything he wanted to about me. Except about Ed MacMillan.

Even so, as I told him about how I hadn’t been doing that well in school, that Dr. Shapiro suggested Burgess and how upset Mom had been upset about it, I stared at the corner of his shoulder because I couldn’t quite look in his eyes. Standing there in the parking lot, I told him as much as I could as quickly as I could, not having any idea what would come next, just knowing I couldn’t stop. When I finished, or at least slowed down because I couldn’t think of anything else to say, Ray Anthony reached into his back pocket and took out a stick of spearmint gum. He slowly ripped it in half, frowning at it like it took all his concentration.

“You want half?”

I took the piece he held out to me and waited for him to unwrap his half so we could start to chew together, at the same time.

Finally he said, “I know Burgess. Everybody know Burgess. Ain’t you too young to be in a place like that?”

“I’m the youngest.” I looked up at him. I’d never felt as young as I did at that moment. Burgess didn’t matter. I wanted to be old enough for Ray Anthony to take me seriously.

“You know,” he started, and I could tell he wasn’t sure how to say it, “you can’t let nobody tell you you crazy. Just cause you ain’t out here doin’ what everybody else is doin.’ That don’t make you crazy.”

I nodded. “I know.” And I remembered days I was sure I was crazy. I was glad Ray Anthony didn’t think so, though.

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